Velocity of an Object in a Hurricane

Date: 4/5/96 at 12:18:11
From: Anonymous
Subject: Hurricanes

Hello. My name is Joseph York.  I live in Arab Al.  I am doing a
computer project for my Supercomputing class in school.  
I would like some help.  

I am doing my project on the distance an object is thrown by a
hurricane.  I am going to use the weight of a Basketball and 
I am going to change the wind speed.  I am going to use the 
shape of a sphere.  I need a formula to calculate the distance the 
object will be thrown by the wind speed I will put into the 
spreadsheet.  Do you know any information or a formula that 
would work?

Date: 4/7/96 at 19:43:5
From: Doctor Sebastien
Subject: Re: Hurricanes

Hi.

You know the following:
v, initial velocity of object = wind velocity
m, mass of object

v would be horizontal in this case.  So this is the horizontal 
component of the speed of the object.  The vertical component 
is zero.

Now, vertically, the object is falling under gravity.  That
is, the object has an downward acceleration, g.

By knowing the distance above the ground at which the object 
exits the hurricane, it is possible to find the time taken for the 
object to hit the ground.  By finding this time and then 
multiplying it by v, you get the horizontal distance travelled 
by the object, which is what you want to find.  

Now, you may need to consider friction.  If it is not 
mentioned in the original problem, neglect it.

-Doctor Sebastien,  The Math Forum